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(No Model.) 3 sheets-sheen 1.

' H. L; HEWITT.

MAIL DISGHARGING APPARATUS.

Patented Jan. 7, 1896.

NO. 552,577. .Z2 7

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H L HEWITT MAIL'DISGHARGING APPARATUS.-

VNO. 552,577. Patenteduan. 7, 1896.

klm/conca (No Model.) 3 sheets-sheet 3.

H. L. I-IBWITT.

MAIL DISGHARGING APPARATUS.

No. 552,577. l Patented JAA; 7, 1595.

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HMiren STATES `ATENT firmen.

I-IORACEL. I-IEVITT, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

MAIL-DISCHARGING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,577, dated January *7, 1896.

` Application iiled January 23,1895. Serial No. 535,962. (No model.)

T0 @ZZ whom it may concelti i Be it known that I, HORACE L. HEWITT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented new and useful 11nproveinents in Mail-Discharging Apparatus, of which the following is a speciication.

My invention relates to an apparatus for discharging mail-sacks from a moving maili car; and it consists in a mail-sack chute secured to the floor or iioor-franiin g of the mailcar in which a traversing automatically-actuated piston operates to discharge the inailsaclz, and will behereinafter more fully set forth.

The object of myinvention is', first, to provide a positive means whereby a mail-sack will be instantly discharged from a moving train into a suitable repository arranged to receive it; second, to provide means whereby power is stored in a suitable accumulator and released when required to operate the mailsack-discharging piston "positively and instantaneously; third, to provide a suitable trip mechanism whereby the power stored up in the accumulator may be instantaneously released without a loss` of power by friction; I attain these objects by means of the apparatus illustrated in the accompanying` drawings, in which similar numbers of reference designate like parts throughout the several views.

Figure `1 is a plan view of themail-sack chute. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of the same.` Fig. 3 is a fronteleva.- tion of the same, showing thetripl mechanism thereof. Fig. is a detail view of the rackcatch and the releasing-cam. Fig.` 5 is a .de-

tailview of the rack of the ejecting-piston 4 and the feed-pawl and showing the said rackbar in its end positionor rear stroke. Fig. 6` is a similardetail View showing the position the pawl assumefswhen` out of yengagement with the rack-bar. iFig.` Tis a side elevation of amail-car, showing myniail-discharging i apparatus applied thereto. Fig. 8 is an end elevation of the same, lshowing the mail-car in section and the position of the "receivingplatform. l Fig. 9 is a front elevation of the receiving-platform, and Fig. 10 is a plan of the The mail -sack -discharging chute .is coin-l posed of the upwardly inclined or sloped bottom 1, the sides 2, and the vertical 4back 3,

with the side of the car, access being had to the chute by means of the trap-door 5 hinged to the bottoni of the car 4 or floor thereof.

The mail-dischargin g chu te is provided with i `the piston 6, which has its reduced or guiding ends formed with guideways adapted to freely fit and to slide on the guides secured to the sides 2 of the chute intermediate between the top and bottom edges thereof. The rear or back wall 3 of the chute is reinforced. by the back brace 8 and the cross-bars 9 and 10 are firmly secured at their ends to the reduced pro,-

`longed ends of the sides 2, which are further stiffened by the distance braces 11.

Intermediate between the center and the guiding ends of thepiston 6 are secured the parallel springretaining' `rods 12, which extend rearwardly through the rear wall 3 and the cross-brace `bars 9 and 10, in the openings of which latter bar 10 said rods accurately fit and slide longitudinally therein. On the ends of eaclgiof` the bars 12 are` secured the` bumper-heads "13, which are adapted i to contact with the rubber bumper-cushions 14 secured on the bar 10, said bumpers being provided for the purpose of ab-` sorbing theinertia of the ejecting-piston and "the moving `parts secured thereto.` Each of the rods 12 is Surrounded by a suitable coilspring ,15, which springs freely fit over. the

said rods andpass throughthe rear wall 31 and `the enlarged opening formed in the crossibrace 9 and bearat their ends against the back `of thepiston 6 and the brace 10. t'

firmly securedjonf'theftop side thereof or the y said rack may be formed integral with the said `bar, said rack-barbeingrmly secured to the backofthe piston 6in any` suitable manner `and extendingrearwardly through suitable apertures `formed inthe rear wall Sand the "cross-braces `Qand 10,` in which apertures the said bar freely iits and y slides longitudinally therein.

` The pawl 18 is adapted Ato engagethe rack i `17, `and ispivotedbetween the oscillating". r :levers 2O on the pin 19K` secured on the ends of said oscillating levers, said levers being firmly i y `The rack-bar `lphas the `rack 17 either` ioo Y secured at their bottom ends to the oscillating shaft 21 on opposite sides of the rack-bar 16. The shaft 21 is journaled at its ends to the sides 2 of the chute and is operated by the hand-lever 22 fulerumed on the side of said mail-sack chute, said lever being connected to the rockin g-shaft lever 23 by the connectingrods 24. I

The rack-engaging plate-catch 25 is formed with a central rectangular opening through which the rack-bar 16 and the rack 17 pass freely, said plate being adapted to slide vertically in and between the vertical guiding-bars 26 and held in position by the cross-bars or cap-guides 27 secured to the cross-bar 9 by the securing-bolts 2S, which pass through said caps and the vertical guide-bars 2G.

The sliding plate 25 is operated to move vertically to disengage the rack 17 by means of the cam 29 secured on the trip-shaft 30 journaled in the bearings 3l and 32, said cam 29 being formed with double cam-toes 2f n for the purpose of actuating the plate 25 to move vertically, no matter what the direction of the rotation of the cam-shaft 2l may be.

On the outer end of the shaft 30 is firmly secured the slotted or open lever 33, in which the cam 34C (which may be either removably secured to the trip-lever 35 or may be formed integral thereon) loosely fits and by which the said slotted lever is actuated to oscillate or rock the shaft 30 to operate the cam 29 and thereby cause the plate 25 to move vertically to disengage the rack-bar 17 to permit the accumulator-springs 15 to immediately actuate the piston` 6 to eject the mailsack from the chute.

The trip-lever 35 is actuated by contacting with the fixed trip or cam 3b secured to either the ties of the permanent way or to some other permanently-fixed structure.

Owing to the rapid movement of the train or the car to which the apparatus is attached, the sudden concussion of the trip-lever 35 against its actuating-cam 36 said trip-lever would be moved violently against the bottom of the mail-sack chute which would soon damage it. In order to avoid its breaking I provide vthe cushions 37 secured to the bottom of said chute in a plane with the oscillation of the trip-lever 35 and against which the latter contacts to absorb the force of the blow. In some cases it is found necessary to provide a floor or platform extending out at right angles from the face of the piston shown in dotted lines, Fig. 2, on lwhich to place the sack, thereby subjecting the sack to less wear due to friction on the bed of the chute; but this friction I have found to be so very slight as to obviate the necessity of the platform. I do not confine myself to the special form of accumulator-springs illustrated in the drawings and previously described, as any suitable form of spring may be used, or air-cylinders may be used in connection with the traversing piston G to actuate it, Without departing from the spirit of my invention. I prefer, however, to use the type of accumulator-springs herein described, for the reason that the said springs are less liable to get out of order through weather conditions than the said air or other fluid-actuated cylinders, which are often in such cases rendered inoperative in cold weather by their working parts being clogged with frozen moisture.

The mail-sack when discharged is delivered into a long receiving-platform 38, which is inclosed at its back and ends by the railing 39 andthe end railing i0, which is inclined inwardly from the back railing` to prevent the mail-sack from rebounding out of the receiving-platform and falling under the cars of the moving train.

The apparatus is operated as follows: The accumulator-springs are first compressed to their fullest extent by the hand-lever 22 to cause the pawls 1S to engage the rack 17 to move the rack-bar 1G and the ejecting-piston (5 connected thereto rearwardly its fullest extent of travel-that is, when the pawl 1S has moved the rack-bar 1G and the rack 17 into the -position shown in Fig. 5, in which position, itis seen, the pawl S cannot be further operated to cause the bar 16 to recede and at which point of the stroke the springs 15 have attained their maximum degree of compression. The hand-lever 22 is now permitted to fall forward toits extreme out-gear position, which causes the pawls 1S to enter between the gripper-springs 41 and 42, between which said pawl is held out of engagement with the rack 17, thereby permitting the free travel of the piston G when the rack is freed by disengaging the rack-plate 25. The piston 6 boing now moved to and held in its extreme rear position by the rack-plate 25 the trap-door 5 is now opened and the mailsack is deposited into the chute. The moving car 4 now causes the trip-lever 35 to contact with the fixed trip-cam 3G to cause the toe or cam 34 of the trip-lever 35 to instantaneously contact or strike the slotted lever 33, thereby causing the oscillation of the shaft 30 to which said lever is rmly secured. The cam 29 being also firmly secured on the opposite end of the same shaft also oscillates to cause either of the cam-toes 29a to contact with the rackengaging plate 25 to slide it upwardly to disengage the top edge of the lip or opening formed therein from the racknteeth 17 ,thereby permitting the instantaneous movement ofv the ejecting-piston G to discharge the mailsack from the said chute into the receivingplatform 38.

IIaving thus fully described the nature and operation of my invention, what I claim as new and useful, and desire to cover by Letters Patent of the United States therefor, is

1. In a mail discharging apparatus, the combination with a sack discharging chute, a traversing piston within the same, rear- IOO IIO

wardly and parallel guide bars secured to the said piston, and actuating 'springs` surrounding said bars, of a rack bar secured to said piston intermediate between said guide bars,

an oscillating pawl adapted to engage said rack to move the same in one direction only, a retaining catch by which said piston is held in any position of its stroke and means for holding said pawl out of engagement with said rack when said springs are fully com pressed and for automatically releasing said retaining catch, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a mail sack discharging apparatus,

the combination with a sack receiving and discharging chute, an ej ecting piston adapted to traverse in said chute, and means for act` uating said piston, of a rack bar secured to said piston and extending rearwardly therefrom, a pawl adapted to engage said rack when moved in one direction only, oscillating levers on opposite sides of said rack bar, a

f pawl pivoted on the top ends of said pawls,

top and bottom gripping springs extending backwardly from said back wall of the chute and between which said pawl is held from disengagement with said rack when said pawl is not in operation, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a mail sack discharging apparatus, the combination with a mail sack receiving and discharging chute, an ejecting piston adapted to traversein said chute, and means for actuating said piston, of a rack bar eX- tending backwardly from said piston and an witnesses.

HORACE L. HEWITT.

Vitnesses: y

`'IHoivrrson R. BELL,

FRANK C. PORTER. 

